Sunday, April 29, 2007

mark's puter has been wigging out, so i haven't been downloading pics. however, i finally caved, and put the software on this one.

so, here we go!This bit of lovliness is lisa souza's elektra, superwash, spun up navajo-ply. and yes, you're seeing correctly, that is sockweight. i had to spin it froghair fine to get that kind of weight, lol. i got 338 yards, which, hopefully, will be enough for my former secret pal hanna, from the L&V yarn Pron exchange, to make a pair of socks. i almost kept it myself!

This is Sari. It's spun from a batt carded by Miss Violet, just before her huge update to etsy last week. i actually helped skein and tag some of that yarn, because there was SOOOOOOOOOO much of it. and y'all know how fast that sold out. good grief, i'm surprised they didn't break etsy! this is 90 yards of bulky weight thick & thin (not too thin, lol) domestic wool, with angelina for sparkle. the inspiration for this was an indian sari, with the angelina being the sparkly embroidery you always see on them. this will be going up on my etsy site (gimme time, lol)

This little lovely is from pigeon roof studios. Krista just does lovely work, and i love spinning her stuff. This is 101 yards of bulky spun called Laura. it's very soft & squishy. i LOVED spinning this up. while it doesn't look much like it now, there was lots of white in the roving. i love spinning with bits of white, because it introduces so many fascinating shades.

This was dyed, again, by Miss Violet. I don't have a name for it, cuz she didn't, either, lol. I've thought about calling it purple haze, as there's quite a bit of hazy purple in it, but this pic doesn't show it off very well. i won't be posting this til i figure out a name, and a better pic. This skein is 116 yards of bulky weight.This is the second skein o the same stuff. it actually shows a tiny bit more of the purple, but still not enough. sigh. This one is 81 yards of bulky weight.

And on the Mark front, he's doing very well. He's using the patch, which seems to be helping immensely. He did confess that he had ONE cigarette yesterday afternoon, after his friend left (he helped mark fix the lawn mower), and before we got home, just cuz he was curious if it would give him a buzz. not only did it not do that, it didn't taste good either, and he didn't enjoy it. That's a good start! cross your fingers!

And now i must dash, i've got yarn to spin, and a boy to goose (liam's mowing, and he's not terribly happy about it, especially since he was told if he didn't finish by 1 (he's been at it since 10), sean would come over later and finish it, and get part of liam's pay for it!)

sorry, no pics. the weather has been really crappy, and the light just sucks for taking pics, so no new yarn. it's spun up and skeined, but no pics. sigh.

the adventure? mark is attempting to quit smoking again. he tried cold turkey last year, and was doing very well (he went from smoking 1 3/4 packs a day to about 8 cigarettes a day) until his foot went whacko on him, and he had to stay home for a month. considering the only company he had was liam (sean went whacko about this same time), and for half that time, he wasn't allowed to move his happy ass from the couch unless it was bathroom, bed, or doctor, he just about lost it, and was up to 2 packs a day again.

he went to the doctor last saturday to have a mole checked on, and came home with smoking-cessation literature, and a sample pack of commits. those are lozenges (kinda like nicorette gum, only cough drop style instead). the problem with those is no drinking or eating for 15 minutes before you take one, or during the dissolve time, which is about 25-30 minutes. mark is a thirsty soul. to not drink anything for that long (particularly first thing in the morning with his coffee (let's just deal with one addiction at a time, eh?)) would have made it 10 times tougher than it needed to be. so we contacted the doctor and asked about the patch. apparently you no longer need a scrip for them, so i took the $10 coupon they had included in his papers and went to walgreens.

now i know why that coupon was $10! with tax, patches for 7 days was $34 before the coupon. can we say ouch? granted, it's still cheaper than the $40 a week he was spending on cigarettes, but still. i will be hunting around for some cheaper prices, that's for damn sure.

However, he came home for lunch and said he actually felt pretty good. he was one of those people who would light up as soon as he got up in the morning, and even got up in the middle of the night on occasion to have one. we actually put the patch on last night before he went to bed, with the thought that maybe he wouldn't crave one too badly when he got up this morning. he said the rush after we put the patch on (i put it on his shoulder for him, i will help him as much as i can to quit (it's affecting my business! i already had one person say they couldn't buy some of my yarn because of the smoke (granted the cats were in there, too, but i think the kicker was the smoke))) was just like it was the first time he lit up oh so many years ago (he started at 16). h owever, this morning, he didn't cough as much, he wasn't as stuffed up (hey, there's an unexpected benefit! maybe i won't have to buy so many kleenex!), and he felt rested, even though he didn't go to sleep til almost 10 last night, and still got up at his usual 345-400 (yes, that's AM. he has to be at work at 6, and he hates being rushed, lol). so hopefully, this will work!

the reason he was up so late last night? we get take out rather frequently, as mark doesn't like to go out, and decided we wanted to try someplace new. mark and i had had old chicago years ago, before the boys came home, and mark wasn't impressed at that time. he was willing to give it another shot, though, so we picked out what we wanted, and i called in the order. i was surprised at the low total, but thought it was ok. i knew i should have had her read the order back to me. the closest old chicago is 20 minutes away (peony park area for those who know omaha at all), so it's a 40 minute round trip. in the rain. and the cold (did i mention the weather's been crappy lately?). so i get down there, and with the wind being from the east, and where they had to-go people park, i got a faceful of rain when i gave the girl my credit card. she brought the food out, i signed the dotted line, and took off for home. i get home, and start pulling food out, and realize that they missed one item, which, unfortunately, was liam's calzone. sigh.

so i called old chicago, very upset. i asked to speak to the manager, and told him that i wasn't very happy, because i had driven all the way down there for this food, and really didn't feel like driving down there again, for their error. he offered me a gift certificate, and i told him that we order out frequently, and had wanted to give old chicago a shot, but with this kind of service, we might never order from them again, and in the meantime, my 14 year old is out dinner. i knew liam wouldn't want my calzone (although he is the amazing eating machine!) because it was spinach, artichoke, and sun-dried tomato (on second thought. . . .). The manager offered to deliver the calzone. i think my jaw hit the floor, just before i asked mark what he thought. mark said let him. so i gave him relatively explicit instructions (it's a bit weird trying to find mark's house from the west. the east is a piece of cake, though. (ask miss lime how hard it is, lol)), and waited. when i had called, it was 730. at 810, he knocked on the door. in addition to the calzone, he gave us a big cookie (the boys died over that one) and an additional $20 in gift certificates. he apologized profusely, and said he would understand if we never ordered from that old chicago again, but if we wanted to use another one, here's some GC's to try to make up for it. all in all, i think we got everything damned near free with all the extra goodies. and no extra charge for liam's calzone. we've decided that we are going to go ahead and give them one more shot, but i'm definitely going through the food before i leave, next time.

and on that note, i must flee. we're having hte folks over for enchiladas, and i gotta pick up a few extras before i head to school.

i was going to show you the new yarn i'd just finished and put up on my etsy site, so you could drool, and maybe dream of buying it.

here they are:

this is the first skein of adele, by deb over at dudleyspinner. it's 395 yards of two-ply in approximately sock-sport weight.

this i named adele II, mostly because it was from the same roving, but just a smaller skein. it's 205 yards. yes, that means i got 600 yards out of 7 1/2 oz of roving. not bad eh? however, you can't see them on my etsy site. why? BECAUSE I SOLD THEM! i offered a $5 discount if someone purchased both, and not only did she purchase both, she purchased both my goblin elbows as well! woohoo, it's official! i'm a seller!

gotta scoot, need to make more yarn for my adoring fans (cough, choke)

Thursday, April 19, 2007

first off, how's about the pics of my stuff from my secret pal from the L&V Pron exchange: vintagechica rocks! what you're seeing is 4 skeins of Mystical Creations silk/wool combo (who knows what i'm going to make with them, but right now they're being petted!), a box of choxie (it's target's upscale chocolate) dark chocolate truffles, a pack of knitter's notes (i love these things! i use them with every exchange i do!), a large bar of ghirardelli dark chocolate (i know that's not spelled right, BUT I DON'T CARE!), a really cool notebook that will go in my bag for yarn notes (i'm coming up with handspun colorways, just wait, they're tres cool (what's up with the french?)), and the book title i bloody well hope you can read! however, i don't have any spindles! tara has promised to make me a top whorl, which is what this book covers, and i'm going to give spindles a shot. belive it or not, i've never used a spindle before. started out immediately on a wheel. what isn't shown is a set of candles in the yummiest flavors! i can't remember them all, but i think my favorite is vanilla amber. yummy!

i finished the harlot socks, but i don't have pics of the finished product, so you'll just have to live with this:

These were done with schoeller esslinger's Merino Soft, which is sport weight, which was obtained from tiffany (forgive me if i spelled your name wrong) when she was destashing in preparation for moving from the marriage from hell. i like this yarn! this is the horcrux worsted pattern, but because the yarn was sport weight, they came out sized for a younger child. maybe 6 or 7? these are going in the dulaan box. and the best part? it only took one ball of yarn (i got to count 142 yards towards my marathon total! i still haven't hit a mile yet, but i'm getting closer!)

these are the squares i've been crocheting for this month's AC4C charity (which just happens to be dulaan!) i'll be mailing these off to the joiner at the end of the month. i actually have 2 more done, and one on the way, but no pics of those yet.

ok, y'all wanna see something very funny?

mark got contacts, and sean found mark's glasses in the bathroom, so he had to put them on. looks kinda bug-eyed, don't he! (how's that for bad grammar, norma?) and then there's this:liam is a clown, and my uber-goober child. and yes, those eyes are crossed, lol.

as for the rest, well, i was a bad girl yesterday. mark stayed home sick, so i came straight here after dropping the kids off at school, and i spun for FIVE hours. i had a mission, and dammit, i wanted that roving off my bobbins! it's done, and you'll see it, after i send it off. it's a present! and it's very nice!

needless to say, my right ankle is still kicking me for that much spinning. is there such a thing as spinner's heel? my right achilles tendon says "hey!" every time i go up or down stairs, but it's not pain, so much as soreness. it already feels much better than it did last night. and i only spun for half an hour this morning, too. i'll just have to watch it next time, and get up a little more often. however, i did work up a sweat, so i suppose that counts as exercise, right?

ok, i have tons of stuff to do before i dash up to blair for court again, so i'll catch y'all on the flip side!

in response to an anonymous comment left, i did offer to overnight his meds to her when i got back home. he would have had them in plenty of time for any kind of trip they would have liked to do. she decided to go without. her decision. i asked if she was sure, and she said yes. as mom, i could have argued, but there is no arguing with this woman. no changing her mind. and that's all i'm saying.

what, exactly is meant by "free?" like laundry soap. i bought some tide free, because it was on sale. and it's kind of weird stuff. it's clear. it's thinner than regular tide. and it has an odd chemical smell. i feel sorry foranyone who HAS to use this stuff. it's not a terribly pleasant experience (and i'll be hitting that sale a little earlier next t ime, lol)

and here's a couple more pics!

i think stephanie is such a blur because she was nodding that she recognized the email i was telling her. she was definitely moving!

and dueling socks. see, i told you i'd just finished turning the heel!

here's the last two items that i donated to ABC in michigan. you've already seen the crocheted bags, and while i did donate the blankets, i didn't make them, so they don't count towards my charity crafting count.

that camoflauge bag was the bane of my existence, i'll tell you. i don't know if it was cheap thread, or the wrong needle, or what, but my sewing machine broke the needle that was in it, so i changed it, and i couldn't sew zigzag, because the thread would break. i couldn't turn corners because the thread would break. and sometimes, the thread just broke. Mom has told me who she takes her machines to (she used to own an alteration shop), so, when i get a chance, we're off to see the wizard. i hope it's not much, just needing a tune up, and maybe a new belt? cross your fingers, this sewing machine is well over 20 years old. it was my grandmother's.

and, apparently, i don't have the pic of beth & i downloaded on mark's computer either, so i wasn't able to put them on flickr. i'll try tonight, as well as pics of my wonderful package from my secret pal from the L&V Pron swap. goodness, the reveal is sunday! good thing my sendee is understanding, and i've let her know part of her package is going to be late! i'm going to mail part of it this afternoon, so she'll get some CLOSE to the reveal date, lol.

and now, to clean my house. mark & his friend are coming over sunday to finally fix the sump pump, so i can start using my washing machine again, and do some decent felting! i gotta get some purses done!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

i took off from here about 10:30 wednesday morning. i had wanted to leave earlier, but my mom's hematologist appointment took a little longer than expected, although we did get the good news that she didn't need a procrit shot, for the second month in a row. her hemaglobin seems to be doing well.

anyway, so i started on my way, and ended up at the hotel at 4:30 that afternoon, after getting just a tiny bit lost. the main road the hotel was on goes north and south, and i ended up on the northbound, when i needed the southbound. fortunately, i found my way back, and made good time. i called beth, from AC4C, whom i had made arrangements to meet, and let her know i was in town, and then dug out my directions to find the wild onion, where we were going to meet and have dinner. it was actually much easier to find that, than the hotel! anyway, we had dinner (we both had steak sandwiches, lol), then walked to the auditorium. it was about 20F (maybe 2 or 3 degrees warmer, but what does it matter at those temps?), and everybody around me was having a fit because i was wearing my flipflops and no socks. just my way, lol.

we got there, and stood in line to check in. the yarnery was taking reservations, because they only had room for 400 people in the hall at the law college (i can't remember what the name was, i only know it was only about a 2 block walk from the wild onion). when they got to me, the lady taking names had to tell me a story. apparently, a knitter had called, and found out they weren't taking reservations any more (apparently they had 100 people wait-listed!), and told them that a large # of knitters would be upset. she even sent a link to my blog, and asked them how upset would i be if i didn't get in? she laughed (to me) and said, "you've chosen the wrong example. she has a reservation." good grief!

we ended up sitting toward the back of the room, so i got up to take these pics:

Stephanie is doing her thing. that is why you can't see me sitting way back in her pics. i was up here!

and then her talking:

as for what she said? down with C.H.O.K.E.! granted there was a small amount of kidding about u.s needle sizes (i would live with metric, honest i would! i'm of the generation where they tried to teach us metric, so we could match with the world, and then never did. however, i know a meter is approximately 39 inches, and an inch is 2.54 centimeters, and a kilogram is 2.2 pounds. and a kilometer is .6 miles. good enough?), but it was a WONDERFUL talk. she went over by half an hour, and finally, the lady running the event had to rein her in, and told her they needed to start the signings. so stephanie announced that anybody pregnant, aged, or needing to feed little ones (there were two babies there) would get to go first. they were handing out totebags with "the yarnery" on them, and whomever had the "golden ticket" got to go first as well. i didn't mind waiting, lol. i knew i didn't have to work the next day, and it wasn't that long a drive to the hotel. so, i bid beth adieu (she'd gotten a pre-signed book, as she DID have to work the next day), and got the ladies sitting behind us to take a picture:

well, i thought i'd loaded it on flickr, but i didn't. you'll have to wait to see beth & i holding the sock! (mine, lol, not stephanie's)

i got in line (at the very end!) and met a lovely lady named Theresa. While we waited, a reporter came and interviewed both of us, and we both got quoted in the paper! here's the link to the article. thank you to theresa for emailing that to me! we got in line at approximately 8:25, and waited. and waited. and waited. we were in the hallway til almost 9:30. i didn't mind, because i got to chat with theresa (i never got your blog address dear!), and they were going down the line handing out chocolate! if you pulled a particular color, you won a prize. theresa got a nice sock pattern. i kept pulling the previous color, lol. i had worn my marge t-shirt from franklin, over my prison long-sleeved t-shirt, also a franklin original, as i knew it was going to be cold. however, it was hot in the hall! i should have known, 400 women (and men!) with wool. sheesh. i had to ditch marge because i got to hot, and i couldn't keep her because it was a white t-shirt, and i wasn't wearing the appropriate color of undergarment (yes, that means i was wearing a black bra!) as i got to the table that the yarnery had set up with all kinds of yarny goodies to tempt us, everybody started asking about the prison t-shirt. so i told the story as i remembered reading it by franklin. everybody got a huge kick out of it (i also get odd looks and questions when i wear this t-shirt in public (mark bought it for me, lol!)). so, franklin, if you have a lot of new readers, you can blame me, lol.

and then it happened. i was standing in front of her yarnness. it was 10:20 at night, i was barefoot (i had taken off the birkies and stuffed them in my yarnery bag so i could cool down a bit), and my arms felt like they were going to fall off, as i had balanced my coat over my original bag, and hung it from my right shoulder, and put my sock (which was at one inch of cuff when i got there, and i had just finished turning the heel by the time i got to THE table) and all my books in the yarnery bag and hung that from my left shoulder. i had marks on my chest from the straps for 3 days! i looked at her, and grinned. "you had told me to tell you my email address when i got here, so you would know who i was." i started to spell it, as nobody gets it other wise, but as soon as i got through "d-r-a-g-o-n," she grinned, and stuck her hand out to shake mine, then got up and gave me a hug! she said it was wonderful to connect names & faces, because her imagination never got it right. i laughed and said that i could just imagine what images my email evoked. so we chatted for a few minutes while she signed my books (i brought all my old ones, as she had said it would be fine), and then we got down to picture taking:

i actually have a picture of her and i holding each other's socks, but it's on mark's puter, and i forgot to upload it to flickr, so you'll have to wait for that one. Theresa took it for me, as well as another one i hadn't been aware of. i'm wondering about posting that one, it highlights my ultimate dorkiness, lol.

anyway, this post is getting way too long, and i haven't had breakfast (taco bell has started serving breakfast from 9-10:30, as a test, apparently, so i'm having a guacamole bacon grilled stuft burrito!), so i'll sign off for now. you'll get more later, i promise

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

i'm feeling restless. i don't know if it's because it's spring, or if it's spring and the weather keeps whispering "winter" in my ear (although it shouted this morning, there was half an inch of snow on my car, and flurried off and on all day. thank goodness the ground is too warm for it to really stick.), or school is going to be out soon (shudder), or what.

nothing satisfies me. not cooking new recipes (or creations of my own, i'm known for doing that), not knitting new, interesting patterns (i'm making the assymmetrical v-neck in toddler size from teva durham's loop d' loop), nor any book i read or listen to.

it doesn't help that i found out last night that the trip to memphis has been cancelled. this was to be my honeymoon. sean went to visit his grandmother this last weekend, and we forgot his meds. i won't say it was an unmitigated disaster, but it didn't go well. as a result, all of a sudden, his grandmother has all sorts of excuses as to why she can't keep the boys for THREE days (we were trying to split the duty between my mother (who is 79) and mark's parents (who are 74 & 79) and her (she will be 65 in june) and her husband (he's 10 years younger than her.)). while i'm sure that neither my mother or mark's folks would mind keeping the boys longer, i don't want to put too much of a burden on either of them because they are a wee bit older.

here's what i don't get. she's been asked to keep all references to her son (the boys' biological father) away while they're there, to include pictures. sean said that there were pictures of him in his bedroom, and it made him nutty, on top of the lack of medication. he did things there he would never do here, medication or not. he got lost at the museum, and didn't follow the drill. he knows what to do if he's lost, and has done so in busier situations (walmart, for god's sake). he also knocked a glass door off its track, lost perfume caps, and scratched a triangle into a desk that meant something to the husband. there was a broken night light, but he swears up and down he didn't do it, the dog did (i can believe it, she's a hyper little thing (she comes along when we meet them to pick them up)). sean hasn't been destructive like that in a very long time. why is it it is only with her? he's fine with me, me & mark, my mom (for goodness sake, she had them for a full 28 hours last week, and nary a problem!), mark's folks, even his sister. sigh. on top of that, she's asked not to have the boys until their birthdays in august. i'm waiting for them to ask when they get to go again. i'm really waiting. when they ask, i'm calling her. she can explain. i don't think it's fair of her to put me in this kind of position. and mark is livid. he feels like it's a direct slap in the face to think (and say!) that no one has gotten through to sean. hello? he's home? and doing marvelously!

here's the scenario i see. i can't go into all of it, but here's what i'm willing to say. she couldn't handle her son at approximately this age. i get the feeling she can't handle sean, and he knows it, and it maddens him. the other thing? while sean may be chronologically 12 1/2, emotionally, and maturity wise? he's maybe 8 or 9. this is a vast improvement over a year ago. then, he was maybe 3 or 4. but he's STILL NOT 12! stop treating him like he is. there is no way in hell i will be leaving him to stay home alone for more than 10 minutes at a time. he'd burn the house down, and not see how he did it. well, maybe not literally, but still. he's not ready. and neither am i. but she sees 12 1/2, and despite all her "sympathy" she still thinks he should be 12 1/2, dammit! sigh.

he's my baby, and the last thing i want to see is him being hurt by someone who purports to love him. then LOVE HIM. warts & ADHD & ODD and all. we do.

Monday, April 02, 2007

liam has homework to do, and he can't do it on mark's puter, so he has to use mine. maybe this will get him ahead in language arts. cross your fingers.

no pics, steph has my camera, sigh. she borrowed it a week ago, and still hasn't given it back. she promised she'd do it tonight, as i need it for the TRIPTRIPTRIP (like i could resist, lol)

yesterday was my birthday, and saturday's was mark's. mark spent his day quietly, as i took the boys to my mom's and i went to jen's baby shower. as stated earlier, i didn't have my camera, so no pics of the blanket that carin, deawn, tara, alicia, glenda (from touche), and i made. she adored it. everyone there did. i did, however, shanghai judith, and she said she'd send me the pics of that, and the sweater i made. they were all cotton-ease, lol. since this is a late spring baby, she will need lots of cotton, lol. had a blast, and again, if you're reading this, claudia, thank you for being such a lovely host (i doubt it, but i did email her my thanks as well).

i spent my birthday not doing a damned thing. we went to ihop for breakfast, then came home, and i read for 2 hours. then i watched the scifi channel and the shining (the good one, with rebecca demornay, that sticks more closely to the book), and parts of the langoliers, before we went to have supper with mark's folks and my mom at the olive garden. yummy!

my boys are the oddest things. how many young teens do you know that would not only order mussels di napoli, but relish them? not to mention calamari? even sean, my picky butt, loved them. i think i'm raising them right food wise.